Hollywood Reporter: The Feb. 20 death of 27-year-old camera assistant Sarah Jones on the set of Midnight Rider outside Doctortown, Ga., spread grief and anger through Hollywood. It has led to an industrywide reckoning on safety standards and inspired some Oscars attendees to wear black ribbons on their lapels in her memory. Many of the details of the accident remain murky and unknown. But now a THR reconstruction, based on an exclusive eyewitness account and interviews with Jones’ parents and others, reveals harrowing new details of what happened when a 20-person film crew tried to shoot a scene on a live train track.
4 comments:
In the other articles about deaths in the entertainment industry, the majority of them seem like they are akin to blameless crimes. Yes, stage collapses are directly the responsibility of the person supervising their construction, but if one bolt goes in wrong and that causes a pylon to collapse, or the wind is stronger than the structure can maintain, those dont account for as much of a lapse in common sense as this does.
I agree with Chris in that this accident happened more because of lapse in common sense than a bolt coming loose or failure in structure. I can see how the entertainment community wants to re-look at safety measures on set after this accident but I'm not sure how much new measures can prevent other kinds of lapses in common sense. Also, I'm curious as to why the production team felt comfortable putting their workers on running tracks.
Good God, there are so many lapses in judgement apparent in the backstory here, and it will be interesting to see what emerges as the case continues to be investigated. Not having permission to be on the railroad, not taking precautions to get earlier warning of the train, not having a medic on site. All of these acts are downright criminal negligence. What Chris and Carolyn have said is very true, often the oversights that cause failures are miniscule and could happen to anyone. However, in this case, the stupidity was blatant and everyone on the crew could see it. People need to step up and ensure they don't get stuck in these situations. Because no one spoke up, the camerawoman lost her life.
Yikes. This one was a rough article to get through. Especially when reviewing the conversation between Sarah and her dad; heartwrenching. I am so confused by every decision that was made during this process. Who shrugged off the refusal of CSX? Who was then so sure that once the two trains had passed by another one was not coming? How would anyone know that if you did not have a representative of CSX to confirm that? Good lord, this is one of those times where when you look back at it you can see every mistake that was made which lead up to tragedy. This was not a random accident; out of the blue, bizarre and uncommon. This was a steady stream of mistakes and higher ups turning a blind eye when they know something is not safe. I am so sorry for this young woman, as well as all of loved ones, and those who were there to witness her horrific and haunting death.
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